Six Roads to Dysfunctional Schools

Throughout the 20th century, the Education Establishment devised scores of seemingly sophisticated pedagogies. Aggressively sold as ways to make schools effective and students smarter, these celebrated methods invariably turned out to render education less effective and students more ignorant.

Let’s take a quick look at a half-dozen of the most famous concoctions. I predict you’ll have a startling realization: all of these things are counterproductive. Worse still, they seem to be that way by design.

Consider a seemingly harmless and even appealing method called Self-Esteem. When educators claim that this new approach will lead to greater self-esteem, the public says, go ahead, surely everyone needs more of that! In practice, teachers are expected to give praise even when students don’t make an effort; students become complacent and less industrious. Even worse, you have a relentless pressure against making academic demands on children, because failure will damage their self-esteem. You see where this is going? Finally, the teacher says, “Hello, class! You’re wonderful.” That is all that can happen. The moment the teacher actually teaches, the self-esteem levels will drop, which cannot be tolerated. Self-Esteem, all by itself, can render a school null and void.

Constructivism’s basic claim is that children must invent their own new knowledge. A mountain of so-called “research” make this process sound as if it is wonderful, necessary, and inevitable. But we need to ask, how would children learn the names of the states or the important events of the American Revolution? Now you start to see the flaw: basic information can rarely be taught with Constructivism. A child might need hours or days to “construct” his way to a page of facts. The teacher must constantly nudge children toward their “discovery” of “new” knowledge, much as children are given hints to find Easter egg. In fact, these magical events won’t usually happen at all. Constructivism is vastly popular now in the public schools, a good explanation for why kids know so little.

The Education Establishment came up with two slogans that have been used relentlessly for more than 60 years: “Rote memorization is bad” and “They can look it up.” This gospel (which cuts across all subject and all grades) states that children shouldn’t bother retaining information. Let’s confront what the Education Establishment is actually saying here: students should have empty heads. (Testing is kept soft and subjective so that students are not often asked if they know or don’t know something.) Since the time of John Dewey, there was always a hostility toward teaching foundational knowledge in the first place. But demonizing memory is the easiest way to make sure that, should anything be taught, nobody can recall what it was.

The whole point of Dewey’s collectivist theory is to create cooperative children. They work and play well together. The next step invariably was to put four or five children at little tables, to let them think of themselves as a group, not individuals. Work will be performed by the group. There was no individual achievement, only group achievement; no individual blame, only group blame. As a practical matter, children never learn how to think for themselves or act by themselves. They always have the shelter and comfort of being inside of a group. The better students carry the weaker students, and everybody’s grades are muddled. But that’s the point in the collectivist classroom.

There are many separate curricula under those three headings, and yet they all have one thing in common: they mix advanced, complicated math with elementary arithmetic. The sales pitch is that children will learn to appreciate math at a higher level. The actual result is that children don’t learn to do basic arithmetic. The proper way to teach arithmetic is that children master the simple stuff (1+2=3), then move to the less simple, then to the intermediate, and so on. New Math and its intellectual descendants were failures, and were abusive to children. Learning long division is hard enough. Just imagine that the crazies at your school mix in base-eight, set theory, some Boolean algebra, geometry, and pre-trig. Result: almost nobody can do arithmetic in a confident, automatic way.

Focus on the central fact that English is a phonetic language, like Latin and French. Its alphabet and word forms were designed to quickly communicate phonetic information, that is, you see a b, B, b, a script b, or B in any of hundreds of typefaces), and your brain immediately knows: buh-. English words are so similar; and every word comes in many different forms: bright, BRIGHT, etc. It’s almost impossible for an ordinary human to memorize even 1,000 of these shifty little designs, never mind the 50,000+ word-shapes you need. But the Education Establishment pushed Whole Word relentlessly, claiming that children must memorize the English language one word at a time as graphic configurations. I would argue that Whole Word is prima facie impossible. Memorizing even a few hundred sight-words can take several years; so literacy happens very slowly. All the things that children used to learn in the first, second, third and fourth grades became impossible, not just reading but also geography, history, etc. Whole Word is, I believe, the official hoax of the Education Establishment. It’s the paradigm of bad education. It can’t work. It hurts children.

It’s good to acknowledge how clever, slinky and difficult-to-understand these six approaches are. The average parent doesn’t have a chance. I bet the average teacher has no clue that these things are toxic waste. Administered with love, they are still toxic. A library has been written extolling these methods. For me to debunk them in a paragraph is a tall order. But I’m hoping I can tempt you to linger over each analysis long enough to feel the contradiction, the sticking point, the sophistry that finally makes these things fall apart in the classroom.

John Dewey and all the people who succeeded him were avowed Socialists. They wanted to make a new world. and as the New York Times once observed in defense of Stalin’s starving the Ukraine into submission, if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. Or a hundred million American kids.

The six gimmicks discussed could be called bait-and-switch. One thing is promised, something else is delivered. But I think these six are of a higher order, more like big-time magic acts. I’m thinking of the really good tricks where you stare in wonderment and stammer: how’d he do that?? Each of these things, we are told, is the best, most modern, most wonderful way to teach; but the kids inexplicably end up crippled and lobotomized. How’d the educators do that? When did it happen? The tiger was there, suddenly it’s gone. Like the kid’s future.

Coda: it’s crucial to get rid of these tricks. That’s the easiest, cheapest way to improve public education. Schools have to leave the indoctrination business, toss aside the gimmicks, and return to the education business. Teachers actually teach. Kids actually learn.

(See related essays on Improve-Education.org: “42: Reading Resources,” “45: The Crusade Against Knowledge,” “52: The Conspiracy Chronicles,” and others.)

Study American public education and you will probably reach a point where you are reluctant to look further; because you have started to sense just how perverse the field is, and how dumb and destructive many of its practices are.

Conversely, the easiest way to improve education is to rein in current bad practice.

Bruce Price - is the founder of Improve-Education.org, a lively intellectual site with articles on Latin, birds, Pavlov, phonics, sophistry, 1984, the assault on math, design, teaching science, why our educators do a bad job, and much more.

“In every adult work and social environment in which I have been involved pleasant cooperation, reliability, dependability, and especially **competency** were the qualities that were valued. While there may have been competition with outside business competitors, competition within the group was NOT helpful in any manner.”

And everyone is promoted at the same time, and everyone makes the same salary, right? If you don’t think people compete within a company for salaries, positions, etc, you’re nuts.

“Would an adult willingly place himself in a situation where he would be “humiliated” and subjected to “scorn”? If an adult would find it very difficult to cope with this type of social abuse, why on earth would we think it is good for children? Perhaps it is the environment itself that is responsible for the lack of motivation.”

Nobody’s making them be lazy or forcing them not to study. It’s called a “consequence”. If people come to recognize, FROM YOUR ACTIONS, that you choose not to work, then so be it. It’s going to be that way for the rest of your life! The good part about it is, the kids completely forget about socioeconomic class, cliques, etc., and select ONLY based on the fact that someone might be a hard worker. In other words, they see the VALUE in a person where they otherwise might not. Conversely, sometimes best friends are passed over if they’ve shown lazy tendencies. But, it’s all up to the kid to work hard and create that value in himself, as it will be for the rest of their lives! That’s the way it SHOULD be! And as for blaming the environment, that’s just one of a long list of things that people use so they don’t have to hold the kids responsible. “It’s not the kid’s fault, its the environment”. If that were true, none of them would succeed.

The following essay reinforces the points being made in this thread:

An Enlightened, Committed People Who Understand The Principles Of Our Constitution

- The Most Effective Means Of Preserving Liberty

"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant - they have been cheated; asleep - they have been surprised; divided - the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free."- James Madison

America's Constitution is the means by which knowledgeable and free people, capable of self-government, can bind and control their elected representatives in government. In order to remain free, the Founders said, the people themselves must clearly understand the ideas and principles upon which their Constitutional government is based. Through such understanding, they will be able to prevent those in power from eroding their Constitutional protections.

The Founders established schools and seminaries for the distinct purpose of instilling in youth the lessons of history and the ideas of liberty. And, in their day, they were successful. Tocqueville, eminent French jurist, traveled America and in his 1830's work, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, wrote:

".every citizen ... is taught . the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution ... it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon."

On the frontier, he noted that "...no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him.... He wears the dress and speaks the language of the cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present.... I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists in the most enlightened and populous districts of France' " He continued, "It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case...where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.."

Possessing a clear understanding of the failure of previous civilizations to achieve and sustain freedom for individuals, our forefathers discovered some timeless truths about human nature, the struggle for individual liberty, the human tendency toward abuse of power, and the means for curbing that tendency through Constitutional self-government. Jefferson's Bill For The More General Diffusion Of Knowledge For Virginia declared:

"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.."

Education was not perceived by the Founders to be a mere process for teaching basic skills. It was much, much more. Education included the very process by which the people of America would understand and be able to preserve their liberty and secure their Creator-endowed rights. Understanding the nature and origin of their rights and the means of preserving them, the people would be capable of self government, for they would recognize any threats to liberty and "nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud." (Adams) (Read about "Our Ageless Constitution" at this site).

A review of textbooks used in the schools until the mid-20th Century reveals a very different curriculum than has existed for many decades now.

It seems the so-called "public schools" stopped performing the role described by the Founders about the time the "progressives" took control of the mechanisms of what now passes for "education" in America. Perhaps the near explosion of home schools and private schools over the past couple of decades has contributed to recent renewed interest in the ideas of liberty and America's founding principles. Is it too little, too late?

The reality is that unless people know they will be fired and replaced, they will slack. Guaranteed.
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Yes, that is the **real** world and the law of natural consequences. People are fired for lack of competency, inability to produce, or inability to work cooperatively with others to produce a desired result.

So?....How often are children “fired” from government school for lack of competency, or inability to get along with others? Hm? No, they are not “fired”. Instead they are “humiliated” and the other children are taught to “scorn” them.

Which is more humane?

1) Is it kinder and more considerate to humiliate and scorn children who are government captives in a government prison-like facility ( children whose only crime was to be born),...

... or?...

2) Do as private schools do? Inform them that they are not a good fit for the private school and the other children, and ask them to leave?

Which is more “real world” and better preparation for the adult world of work and social relationships?

I teach in private school. I don’t humiliate, I don’t scorn. All I do is ask the same from all the students, to reach the standard that I’ve set.

If they don’t reach it, it means I have to work harder with them and they have to work harder too.

The kids don’t want to look bad in front of their peers, and the kids know that I’m not going to ask of them what I don’t ask of anybody else in the class. I don’t pick on people, I don’t make examples of them.

But they know that I will call on them, and they will be expected to know the answer, and I will work with them until they are confident.

Unlike in the real world, you get second chances, as many as it takes until you get it. They also realize that I’m only with them for one year, and that next year, if they don’t work, the consequences will be dire.

Most of them respond. Two haven’t really for the entire year. But every class I keep pushing them along and trying to get them involved in the class.

I don’t and haven’t had to use the stick. Yet. So far the carrot has been effective enough to motivate most of the students. Yes, they compete with each other and I encourage them to do so.

A review of textbooks used in the schools until the mid-20th Century reveals a very different curriculum than has existed for many decades now.
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Government education probably wasn't too bad initially due to the basic values brought to the socialist schooling system by the teachers and principals. These values are reflected in the early textbooks.

We will see the same thing with socialized health care.

The professionalism of the doctors and nurses will ( at first) insure that patients get reasonably decent care. In one or two generations, though, as the those who were trained in the private system retire, socialized medicine will exhibit all the pathology seen in our socialist-funded, compulsory, and voter mob controlled government schools.

In one or two generations citizens will be saying:

** We need local control.
** We need to get rid of the Federal Department of National Health.
** We need to elect better people to the health boards.
** We need to get back to basics.
** If only the doctors and nurses weren't unionized.
** If only parents took better care of their kids. It's the parents’ fault.
** If only citizens took more responsibility for themselves. It's the citizen's own fault.
** If only there was less waste.
** We need more doctors and nurses and fewer administrators.
** If only the medical and nursing schools had fewer Marxists.

Americans, in one or two generations, will be absolutely incapable of believing that a private system of health care can exist. They will think that if they could just tweak the socialist health care system in one or two ways that somehow it would be fixed. Very few will understand that the underlying pathology within the system is SOCIALISM!

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